"Aye," I said, staring through the dusk, “it often is." "But I opened every door in the house!" returned Mummer. "Perhaps a draft has blown it to," I suggested. "The windows are all closed," he retorted. "We 'd best go back, missis." "Not yet, Mummer," I said decidedly; "we can't stay in the vaults forever. I must know who's there. Most like 't is Bart, or it may be some of the officers returned." "But how got they in?" he asked. "That I know not," I replied; "but you wait here. I'll go to the door and listen. If any one moves, I'll slip through the library and join you again at the scullery. Is not that safe?" "Yes," said Mummer, "unless, belike, there's some one in the library as well." "We can go by way of the library and make sure," I agreed. This we did, finding it empty. I tiptoed toward the door and put my eye to the keyhole. At once I saw that the light in there was gray, showing that a shutter must be open. Then I listened, holding my breath, and caught the sound of low moans. "Mummer," I whispered, "there's some one in there, and he 's wounded!" "Then come away, missis," he begged, taking a step; but I grasped him by the arm. "Nay," I insisted, “I am going in, and you must stay with me, for I may need help." With that I thrust open the door, and saw a man in Continental uniform lying before the long window, which had been burst open. No one else was in the room, and Mummer taking courage, we crossed together and bent over the prone figure. One look was enough. I dropped to my knees. "'T is Master John !" cried Mummer, and from that moment he seemed a changed man, the cowardice he had exhibited before disappearing utterly. Knowing that there was work for me to do, I summoned all my fortitude. "Mummer," I exclaimed, "we must get him up-stairs at once!" "Aye," he agreed; "but first I'll bar this window, and we 'll have Mrs. Mummer up to attend him. She's a rare doctor with wounds and suchlike." Brother John was no light load for one man and a girl, but I was strong, so that we managed somehow; and when he was at last laid on my bed, Mummer hurried away to bring his wife. She came running, and wasted no time in vain exclaimings, but straightway set about cleansing the wound in Brother John's head, which, so far as we could see, was his only hurt. While she was thus busy, he opened his eyes and recognized us with a tired smile. "I'm all right," he whispered, and at once went off into another swoon. A minute or so later the sound of galloping horses reached us, and we knew from experience that 't was made by a troop of cavalry entering the place. Mrs. Mummer and I looked at one another in an agony of suspense, each with the same question in her mind. "Were they friends or foes?" In answer came a thundering knock on the door, and the summons: "Open in the name of the King!" CHAPTER XXII BEHIND THE BOOK-SHELF THERE was no hiding the fact that here was a most perilous situation. While the summons of the British for admission still echoed through the house, Mrs. Mummer and I turned to the bed whereon Brother John lay, unconscious from the wound in his head. "If it is Captain Blundell we are lost!" I whispered to her, and she nodded her head in silent agreement. "Run and see!" she suggested, and at her word I sped along the hall and leaned over the balustrade, just as old Sam, the house-servant, shuffled toward the door, grumbling to himself as he went. As they came trooping in, the sound of voices filled the hallway, and I listened for the first hint that would give a clue as to whom they were. "Now this place pleases me," I heard one of them say in a high-pitched voice. "'T is like we 'll find food that a man may eat and not be sorry. My life on it, Blundell has been here before seeing that he led us-" But I waited to hear no more. The dread news that I had half expected was enough to send me back to Mrs. Mummer in a panic. "T is he!" I cried, locking the door behind me. "What shall we do?" Mrs. Mummer, wringing her hands, had no word of help to offer, and for an instant we looked at each other, not knowing where to turn. "What is the matter?" came a voice from the bed, and we faced about to see Brother John, leaning on his elbow, gazing at us. "Oh, 't is the British!" I said, running to him. "They are down-stairs and-" "Now don't get flustered," he replied coolly, and he made an effort to rise; but this he could not do for weakness, and was forced to lie back on the pillow with a faint smile on his face. "'T was a shrewd blow!" he whispered, "I 'm worse off than I thought." He closed his eyes again as if wearied, and we feared he had swooned once more. with me. I searched a moment, and there, sure enough, was a nail so contrived that no one would have noted it. "I have it!" I cried excitedly. "Then turn-it-twice-to-the-right," he whispered, and to my horror he closed his eyes But he was still conscious and a moment later and slipped gently off the chair to the floor. At he spoke. the same instant there came a sharp rap on the chamber door. "Mrs. Mummer," he began, looking about the room, "clean out all these bowls of water and bloody rags. There must be no sign to tell them you have a wounded man on your hands." We both set about it at once, and in a twinkling the water was emptied at the window and the place put to rights. With my hand on the nail, I stood paralyzed for a second, then I turned it, and the whole book-shelf moved under my hand, showing a small room beyond. I understood at last, and, summoning all the strength I possessed, I tiptoed to Brother John "Though I like not such sloven tricks," said and began to drag him toward the secret opening. Mrs. Mummer. It only remained to take away the telltale linen, and she was about to go with this when Brother John called her back. "Nay, do not go yet," he said. "I'll need you both to help me over there," and he pointed to a chair standing on the opposite side of the room against the wall. "But, Master John," protested Mrs. Mummer, "'t will be the death of you!" And I, too, raised my voice against it, for I could see no reason in the move. But he cut us short. "Nay, waste no time arguing the matter, for it must be done," he insisted, and rose swaying on the edge of the bed. Oh how I tugged, and with what a beating heart I listened for the next blow on the door, which I was sure would come! I had dragged Brother John half-way through the little opening when the knock sounded again, and with it the voice of him I dreaded most. "Mistress Beatrice," he cried, “are you there?" and he turned the knob of the door. Panting with my efforts as well as the anxiety I felt, I dragged at the dead weight, and, at last, when I thought my strength must fail me, fetched him across the threshold of the secret chamber. Then leaving him, for I dared not delay, I stepped over his outstretched legs. Sliding shut the panel, I stood panting, with my We put our arms about him, one on each side, back to it, my hands pressed to my breast as if and with our help he tottered to his feet. "Come now," he said, addressing himself whimsically, "you 're no silly woman, to swoon in a case like this, though your head does buzz a bit"; and he took the first step toward the chair. Somehow or other we managed to get him there at last, though more than once we thought he would fall, and he sat down with a sigh of relief. "Now, Mrs. Mummer," he ordered in a faint voice, "burn those rags in the kitchen and have a care they are not seen. Nay, Bee, you stay with me," he went on, as I made a start to help, so I stood still with an arm about him, while Mrs. Mummer gathered the things together and went out through the dressing-room. "Now, Bee," said Brother John, "you 'll have to do all the rest yourself, for we 're at secrets that none but my father and I have ever known. You will be the third, but you, too, are a Travers, and will have the place if aught goes wrong to stop the wild beating of my heart. "Mistress Beatrice," Blundell called, again. striking the door heavily; "Mistress Beatrice, are you deaf?" "Who calls?" I answered, vainly trying to make my voice sound natural. 66 ""T is Captain Blundell," came the impatient answer; "there is a wounded man-" "How know you that?" I cried in despair, too overwrought to measure my words. "Because 't was I who brought him here," he shouted. "But what has that to do with it? The man is here, and needs attention; and though I've searched for that sour old housekeeper of yours, I can neither find her nor the place she keeps her lint and bandages." My heart began to beat more naturally again. "I shall come at once," I answered; "but do not wait for me.” "Nay, then," he returned suspiciously, "I'll wait till I see you. Belike you'll move the quicker." I saw that the man meant to stay, and that the quicker he was pacified the quicker I could return to Brother John; so I went to open the door, though my heart bled to leave my brother lying on the floor of the secret room. Captain Blundell stepped across the threshold of the room as I faced him, and his eye caught the tumbled bed where John had lain. "So you were asleep!" he sneered. "I thought I should have to beat down the door to make you hear. 'T is a nice lazy life you have of it. Had I my way 't would not be the king's loyal subjects but the rebels who did the work." And with that he went out of the room, saying "Come on" in his roughest manner; and I followed thankfully. The hall below was full of officers who were strangers to me, and they were busy making themselves very much at home when we came down. Captain Blundell asked where the wounded man had been taken, and, receiving an answer, he would have led me on, but at that moment Mrs. Mummer came out of the library and met us. "For shame to bring the child here!" she cried so loudly that the men about us stopped their talking to listen. "Wounded soldiers are proper sight for a little maid." no "Hold your tongue, woman!" he answered. ""T is time you all learned more fitting manners to your betters. I mean this lazy maid shall tend the man. Faith, there 'd be no such pother were it one of your own ragamuffin army! Out of the way! My mind is made up on the matter!" "Aye, then, so is mine! And in she shall not go!" cried Mrs. Mummer, facing him valiantly. 'T was not so much on my account that she braved the man as for the sake of one lying helpless up-stairs and sorely needing attention. I know not how that controversy might have ended, for Captain Blundell seemed determined to have his way, and Mrs. Mummer was one not easy to move; but, at that moment, a soldier came up to Captain Blundell, saluting. "Colonel Taunton's compliments, sir," he said; "an' he wishes you should wait on him at once. He is taking up his quarters in this house." I saw the captain scowl, for here was one who was his superior; but without another word, he turned and left us. "And what of Master John?' whispered Mrs. Mummer, coming close to me. "He is safe," I answered; "but I know not how he fares. He fainted, and I was forced to come away, leaving him lying on the floor." "Go back," she said; "the wound may have started afresh, and he be like to bleed to death. I go to make him a posset." THERE was once a king who had two beautiful daughters. The eyes of one were gray, and her hair dark and long; she was called Princess Night; while the other, who had blue eyes and hair as golden as the sunbeams, was called Princess Day. Princess Night wore a crown of diamond stars upon her waving black hair, and her dark blue mantle was embroidered with shining stars and a silver moon. Princess Day wore a crown of jeweled flowers, her soft, white gown was held in place by a girdle of golden butterflies, and her mantle, which was sky-blue, was embroidered with birds of lovely colors. The two princesses were so fond of each other, and of the king, their father, that all went happily in the palace until one day the king married a woman who was a wicked witch. He did not know how bad she was, but he ought to have guessed, for her eyes were bold and cruel, and her mouth was narrow and ugly. She was a jealous stepmother to the two princesses, and the sweeter they were with her, the more she hated them and tried to do them harm. She was espe cially angry when she saw how the people loved them, for they cheered, waved their handkerchiefs, and cried "Hurrah," whenever the princesses passed; signs of love they never showed at the sight of her cruel face. So the witch made up her mind that she must get rid of her stepdaughters, at all costs. She shut herself up for days in a room in the castle tower, a place with no windows, so that neither light nor sound could enter. She knew that the most wicked of her tricks would not work unless they were planned away from the light of sun and moon, and in a place where no song from man or bird could be heard. So behind the thick, stone walls of the tower room, lighted by the glow of a red lamp, she worked her ghostly incantations. She made a diamond star and a ruby rose that looked like one of the stars and one of the flowers in the princesses' crowns, but, oh, how different they really were! They were filled with magic, as we shall see. And all the time the stepmother worked, she kept the goblins and demons who were her slaves working too. She ordered them to build a high, stone tower, with only one small window near the top to let in air, and to prepare a mist which would hide this tower from all the world. It was a strange mist, which no sound or ray of light could pass through, for the witch knew, as I said before, that a ray of light or a note of music would destroy her wicked charms. In this tower she planned to imprison the two princesses. At last her work was done-the star and flower finished, and the tower and mist ready. Then, THE WITCH IN THE TOWER ROOM. with a cruel smile, she kissed the princesses, saying she had a present for each of them-an addition to their lovely crowns. They took the gifts without dreaming of harm, and thanked their stepmother prettily. Princess Night placed the brilliant stone star with the others in her crown, while Princess Day laid the ruby rose beside a shining water-lily. And then-they fell into a sleep so deep and so long that they never knew when goblins surrounded them, lifted them, and flew with them to the lonely tower hidden in the silent, dreary mist. When they awoke in the dark, they were terri fied, and if they had not remembered they were princesses, I think they would have cried. As it was, they tried to be brave, to wink back their tears, and find a way out of their prison. But the only opening was a tiny window far above their heads, through which came a glimmer of cold, gray mist. So they held each other's hands, and through the long days which followed, they tried to forget their loneliness in talking of all the beautiful things they had once seen in the world, flowers and birds, stars and sunshine. The goblins brought them food, so they did not starve, and sometimes they slept, although they never knew when it was day or night. That strange gray mist was never any lighter or any darker as it streamed through the tiny window. The poor king was miserable when he found his daughters had disappeared, and the witchqueen made believe she was sorry, too. She said she feared they had run away with the two princes, Prince Night-wind and Prince Dawn, who were their dearest friends, and who had hoped sometime to marry them. So the king sent for the princes, and when he found they had left the country, he was forced to believe that they had run away with his two daughters. He and his people put on black robes, and all the bells were tolled solemnly to show how the whole kingdom mourned the loss of Princess Day and Princess Night. But, as we know, the princes had not run away with their lady-loves. Instead of that, they were trying their best to find the princesses. They knew what had happened, for the evening star, which twinkles in the sky before any of the other stars open their eyes, had seen the sisters carried away. This star sang a little song to the princes, telling them that far to the north, hidden by a thick mist, stood a tower in which the princesses were shut up. There was only one way to save them, the star said. If the sisters could be made to sing, to answer, perhaps, a song outside their tower, the charm would be broken. That seemed very simple to the princes. They had often sung songs beneath the palace windows, and the princesses had answered with still sweeter music. So very hopefully the two young men hurried to the north until they reached the magic mist. All day they tried to sing there, but not one whisper could be heard through that grayness. And the light of the lantern they carried went out at or.ce, for no beam could shine there, and the princes lost their way, and struggled back, disappointed and discouraged. Just as they reached the edge of the fog again, the sun was rising over the world, and hundreds |